Hugo Boss - Tailor To The Nazis

Before and during the second world war, the Hugo Boss company produced the black SS uniforms And the SA brown shirts for the Nazi party. This fact was uncovered following after years of investigation by journalists in 1997.

Support of NazismBoss joined the Nazi Party in 1931, two years before Hitler came to power. By the third quarter of 1932, the all-black SS uniform (to replace the SA brown shirts) was designed by SS-Oberführer Prof. Karl Diebitsch and Walter Heck (graphic designer). Hugo Boss company produced these black uniforms along with the brown SA shirts and the black-and-brown uniforms of the Hitler Youth. Some workers are acknowledged to have been French and Polish prisoners of war forced into labour. In 1999, US lawyers acting on behalf of Holocaust survivors started legal proceedings against the Hugo Boss company over the use of slave labour during the war. The misuse of 140 Polish and 40 French forced workers led to an apology by the company.

After World War II, Boss was fined for his support of Nazism and was not allowed to vote. He died of a tooth abscess in 1948.